Commuters decry DRPA bridge toll and train fare hikes

Angry commuters yesterday scolded port authority officials for seeking a bridge toll increase after spending $375 million on stadiums, concert halls and museums.

At the first of two hearings on proposed toll hikes and PATCO train fare increases, a largely skeptical audience also complained that reductions in the senior-citizen discount will hurt some of the region's most vulnerable residents in tough economic times.

"I'm pretty angry," said Linda Glaser of Pennsauken. "This wallet has been squeezed to death. I don't have any more. . . . You gambled the money away, thinking the economy would sustain your folly."

"Only good employees get raises, and you have not been good employees," she told Delaware River Port Authority officials, to loud applause from the crowd of about 50 people at the Campus Center at Rutgers University-Camden.

Delaware River bridge tolls for cars are set to rise to $4 from the current $3 on Sept. 14, and PATCO fares will go up 10 percent at the same time, if the DRPA board approves the hikes next month.

Additional fare increases are set for 2010, with bridge tolls to go to $5 and PATCO fares to rise another 10 percent. Beginning in January 2013, increases tied to inflation would be imposed automatically every two years.

The raises are necessary, DRPA officials say, to pay for about $1 billion over the next five years in repairs and improvements to its four bridges and its fleet of PATCO railcars.

Along with the toll increases, the agency would phase out its commuter discount. The $18 credit for 18 crossings a month on the same bridge would fall to $12 on Sept. 14. It would be reduced to $6 in September 2009 and end in September 2010.

The cost for a senior-discount round trip would double to $2 on Sept. 14 as part of a planned toll increase. And the discount would be eliminated between 6 and 9 a.m. and 4 and 7 p.m. Also, instead of using special $1 tickets at the toll booths, seniors would be required to get an E-ZPass account and would be limited to one discount per day.

Much of the anger at yesterday's meeting was directed at $375 million in DRPA spending over the last decade on such economic development projects as Lincoln Financial Field, the Kimmel Center, the National Constitution Center, the Camden Riversharks' minor league baseball stadium, and most recently, a soccer stadium complex on the Chester waterfront, and the National Museum of American Jewish History near Independence Hall.

About $35 million remains earmarked for future economic development, and assurances by DRPA chief executive officer John Matheussen that money from the proposed toll increases would not go for more such projects did little to placate the audience.

"As much as you say you get it, you obviously don't get it," said Allen Basewitz, of Philadelphia, shaking his fingers at Matheussen and other DRPA officials. "If I earmark money for a new Cadillac and my roof starts leaking, I defer the car and fix the roof."

David Weinstein, representing AAA Mid-Atlantic, also urged the DRPA to use the $35 million in remaining economic development money to pay down debt or mitigate toll hikes. The AAA is not opposed to "reasonable toll hikes or fare increases," he said, but "we remain concerned about providing more and more money to an authority only recently overcoming what we believe is a history of poor spending."

The AAA and others were also critical of the future fare increases that would be automatically instituted.

"It takes a lot of nerve to propose that. There's no accountability that way - you never have to come before a group of people like this," said Donald Nigro of Collingswood.

Owen Stewart, of Woodbury, said he had little confidence in the DRPA to budget carefully. "Things don't change," he said. "It's a bunch of politicians appointed by the governors to give away other people's money."

The DRPA expects to take in about $238 million this year, including $195 million, or 82 percent, from bridge tolls. Drivers make about 55 million round trips a year across the bridges.

Money from those tolls pays about half the cost of PATCO operations. The 37,000 daily riders contribute a little more than $20 million of the $40 million cost of the commuter rail line.

The last toll increase on the bridges was in 2000, when a round trip went to $2 from $3. The original round-trip cost on the Ben Franklin Bridge, which opened in 1926, was 50 cents. Through inflation, that would be about $6.12 today.

The last PATCO fare increase was in 2001, when the maximum round-trip fare went to $4.90 from $4.20. The maximum when the 14-mile line opened in 1969 was $1.20, equivalent to $7.08 today.

The second hearing on the proposed increases is today at 6 p.m. at the Philadelphia Cruise Terminal, Building No. 3, Navy Yard, 5100 S. Broad St.

For more details on the toll and fare changes, visit

http://go.philly.com/tolls.